Back pain and discomfort are ubiquitous problems for activities (or inactivities) involving sitting or lounging for extended periods of time. Such pastimes include sunbathing and simply relaxing outdoors on the backyard patio. Extended stay in lounge chairs begins to go against the very purpose of being so situated as back discomfort begins to outweigh the relaxing aspects of that activity. For persons with existing physical conditions involving the dorsal areas of the body, it may not even be a matter of duration, but simply laying back onto a beach chair that causes discomfort. It would be beneficial to the art to have available a device that can be adapted to existing furniture for providing support to the cervical and/or lumbar regions of the spine where most of the above-described back discomfort and pain are localized.
Self-contained, portable back rests are known such as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,363,517 and 4,908,891. These devices are self-contained furniture themselves requiring no adaptations to existing chairs and not of the kind contemplated by this disclosure.
Covers for beach chairs and patio seating are old in the art and some have even been patented. Representative examples include those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,536,028 and 4,844,540. These devices are simply towels or sheets made to fit over their intended seating means.
Other devices for adaptive use with chairs for providing back support are known such as depicted in U.S. Pat. No. Des. 258,187 and described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,974,827, 4,362,334, 4,864,668, 5,314,235 and 5,522,793. None of these patents disclose a portable, orthopedic support device suitable for use with conventional outdoor furniture such as beach or lounge chairs and designed to provide support to the cervical and/or lumbar regions of the spine such as provided by the following disclosure.